Working closely with its partners at the county
level, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
(DEP) is spearheading the removal of hundreds of thousands of
tires from the largest tire dumps in the state, all of them in
South Jersey, commissioner Bob Martin said.

“At one time, tire dumps, some comprised of what seemed to be
endless hills of rolling rubber, scarred many parts of New Jersey’s
landscape, especially in South Jersey,” Commissioner Martin said.
“Throughout the years, millions of tires have been removed and
tire dumps cleaned up.”

South Jersey had a larger share of illegal tire dumps due to
the region’s remoteness and availability of large tracts of undeveloped
land. The dumps typically popped up decades ago around scrap
yards.

Under the initiative begun in 2009, the DEP provided Atlantic,
Burlington County, Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties
with project grants through its shared agreements under the County
Environmental Health Act. The counties issued clean up contracts.

The property owners lacked funds to do the work, failed to comply
with clean up orders, or have abandoned the property. The counties
have made arrangements to recoup the expenditures through proceeds
from any future sales of the properties. The DEP has requested
the counties to use any recovered money on future solid-waste
clean up programs.

The following clean up projects are under way or have been completed:

The Salem County Improvement Authority oversaw the removal
of an estimated 200,000 tires at the 23 acre Gates Tire Recycling,
Inc. property, located along County Route 620 in rural Mannington
Township. The DEP reimbursed the county $200,000 for this clean
up. Contractor Magnus Environmental Corp. shredded the tires
at its Wilmington, Delaware, facility for use at the Salem County
Landfill. This project was completed last year.

Using $50,000 allocated by the DEP, the Atlantic County
Division of Public Health is removing the remaining 20,000 tires
as well as tire chips from the former Perona Scrap Yard on Columbia
Road in Mullica Township, located within the ecologically sensitive
Pinelands National Reserve. Some 216,000 tires had been removed
from this site in 2006. Work is expected to be completed by the
end of the month.